Stormy Weather
by Jade2
Summary: During a fierce storm, hell breaks lose for the lives of Billy, Diane and Chicago Hope.


It was a hot, stormy July evening when Diane and Billy got home from a Sunday matinee. They ordered Chinese food and sat eating fried noodles and watching the Discovery Channel on television. It was an interesting special on the mysteries of Egypt. Even Billy enjoyed it.  
Billy cleaned up while Diane took a lengthy hot shower. Long, strong arms connected to a familiar, naked body interrupted her halfway through. She turned around and the two of them made love in the shower. Afterwards, Billy carried Diane to bed, the both of them still wet and bare, steam rising off of their bodies. They made love again, climaxing together in drawn-out, amative cries, holding tightly on to each other. They collapsed back onto the bed, still holding onto each other. Diane wrapped her legs around Billy and he ran his hands through her sleek, wet hair as they kissed softly for a while.  
"I love you, Billy."  
"I love you too, babyface." He replied huskily. He kissed her neck, her forehead, her nose, and finally her lips before falling asleep in her arms.   
Diane smiled weakly and rested her head on his shoulder, drifting off into a deep, dark slumber.   
  
***  
  
The next morning turned out to be much like the evening before: the sky filled with deep, dark clouds from which fierce lightening, thunder and heavy rain fell. Diane and Billy woke up late and skipped showers (although they noted that Aaron Shutt would probably be able to smell the sex on their bodies), throwing on extra scrubs. They grabbed their stuff and left in a hurry.   
The hospital was packed when they arrived. It was so bad Philip put Diane in the ER for the day, along with many other doctors who usually didn't work there. "Many roads have been washed out since last night. Many homes around the lake have been flooded and the wind's been reaping terror to citizens, too." Philip explained. "We need all the help we can get.  
By early afternoon, it was complete chaos. Every cuticle in the ER was taken, and every space after that seemed to be filled, too. "Hey, Philip!" Billy yelled to the chief of staff as he walked by. "Why can't County take some of these people?"  
"It's worse off than we are, doctor," Philip replied, injecting something into a little girl's arm. "Besides, I would never do that to our patients," he added in disgust toward the other hospital.  
By late evening, Diane was completely exhausted. She needed help even getting to her feet. Philip, noticing this, ordered her to go home and get some rest. "But Philip, you need me, this place is still the pits..."  
"You have probably done more around here than anyone else has today, Diane," Philip replied sternly. "And you don't even work down here as often as half these people. Now go home and sleep."  
Diane finally obeyed. She grabbed her umbrella and when she reached the nearest El station, thanking god the subway wasn't shut down.   
When she got home she took a shower and changed into a thin, sleeveless shirt and a pair of equally thin cotton pajama bottoms. She warmed up some leftover Chinese food and ate it in front of the television, watching the news. The weatherwoman predicted, unfortunately, more weather like the present to come. The storm was likely to last until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.   
Diane sighed and stood up, putting her plate and fork in the dishwasher. She was just about to head for the bedroom when her cell phone rang. She picked it up and smiled.  
"Hey, Billy," She said. "Miss you."  
"Miss you too, darling," Billy replied, all the exasperation leaking out of his body at the sound of her voice. "How 'ya doing?"  
"Fine. I wish I was still there, helping you guys." She replied. "How's it going?"  
"It's starting to quiet down. I suspect that most of the nighttime party goers will be smart enough to stay indoors for the eventide." He replied. "I think I'll be heading home in an hour or two, at the most."  
Diane smiled to herself again. "Can't wait for you to get home." She said longingly.  
"Me either." Billy replied. "I better go now. I love you baby. You don't have to stay awake for me, though."  
"I wasn't planning on it!" Diane laughed. "Love you, too. Drive safely."   
  
Diane was just climbing into bed with a good book in her hand when she heard a slam from the apartment next door. She sighed heavily. The neighbors were constantly fighting. She suspected, by the bruises on the woman's face, that her boyfriend beat her. She had tried talking to her about it once but the woman had quickly changed the subject. She leaned back, resting against the backboard. She and Billy had learned to ignore it, knowing there was little they could do.  
She was just opening her book when there was another loud slam. It sounded like a body being thrown onto the floor. Diane winced and shut her book. She could hear muffled shouting from a male voice...the boyfriend. Then a sharp scream and something smacked the wall behind her. A crash, sounding like a vase or lamp or something. Diane pulled herself out of bed and placed her ear against the wall. She could hear movement from the other side. She suspected that the woman was leaning up against the same wall.  
"No...oh god please...no, no, no..." she heard the woman moan. "Please..."  
"Shut up!" The man barked. "I'm sick and tired of you, you fat ass bitch! This is it!"   
Diane heard a shrilled but muffled scream. It sounded like he was really hurting her, hearing the muffled moans and cries of pain.   
Diane had had enough. She grabbed her cell phone (was prepared to threaten to call the police if he didn't stop) and left her apartment, walking to the one next door. Surprisingly, the door was left ajar. She cautiously entered and headed for the sounds. She walked into their bedroom and came upon a frightening view.  
The man, an average height, rough looking young man with second-day stubble on his cheeks and bloodshot eyes hovered over a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and ivory white skin. She was wearing a blood soaked bathrobe, which was open, exposing her body, which looked like it had been stabbed multiple times. Her eyes were closed and Diane couldn't tell if she was still breathing. The man held a long, bloody knife in his hand.  
Just as she was about to flee silently he swung around and caught sight of her. Diane screamed as loud as she could and fled from the room and out of the apartment, his footsteps not far behind. She ran into her own apartment and tried to shut the door but he blocked it with his foot. Leaning against it with all her weight, she frantically tried to dial 9-1-1 on her cell phone but just as she was about to hit 'send' the door was flung open and she fell to the ground, her cell phone flying far out of her reach.  
"Come here, you little bitch!" The man snarled, slamming the door behind him. To her dismay he bolted it shut before turning to her. She pushed herself off the ground and headed to the only other room with a strong lock on it...the bathroom. She got there just in time. She flung open the medicine cabinet and looked for anything, anything at all that could help her.   
"Damn it!" She swore. All she could find was hair spray, which she held in her hand, ready to use. The man, meanwhile, had been beating on the door. To her horror the door was breaking and cracking around the lock. She turned to the toilet and pulled hard on the seat, but it didn't come off in time. He had already gotten in.  
She reached was able to spray some of the hair spray in his face before he grabbed her arm, pulling her to him. "God damn it...you're going to PAY!" He swore loudly. He grabbed her roughly by her arms and twisted them around her back, leading her into her bedroom. He slammed the door shut behind him.   
She opened her mouth to scream again but it was barely heard over the enormously loud thunder. He thrust her onto the bed and turned her over onto her back. "You are going to PAY!" He yelled at her again.   
Somehow he was able to hold her squirming body down as he ripped off her shorts and shirt. He impatiently pulled off her panties and commenced to lower his own pants and boxers. All the while Diane continued to scream and sob for help, which wouldn't come.  
  
Back at the hospital Billy was just sitting down to rest at the nurse's station when a powerful, unexplainable feeling hit him. It twisted and pulled at his heart and stomach and for a second he felt like he might actually be sick. For some reason, he suddenly felt like he should call Diane.   
He hurried to a phone and frantically dialed the number. He frowned, letting it ring at least thirty times before hanging it up in frustration.   
Aaron, who had escaped having to work in the ER that day, walked by. "What's wrong?" He asked, stopping next to the young doctor who looked like he was going to be sick.   
"I don't know..." Billy said weakly, "but I think something's wrong with Diane. I just called her and let the phone ring for ages and she didn't pick it up."  
"Maybe she's in the shower...or sleeping?" Aaron suggested.  
"She already took a shower and she's a light sleeper. She always gets up and answers the phone." Billy replied. "I need to get home, but I can't just leave the ER..."  
Aaron hesitated, then answered, "Look, I'll take over your spot. It's getting quiet anyway."  
"Are you sure? Don't you want to get home?"  
"Not as much as you do. Besides, I have nothing or no one there that needs me." He reassured him.  
"Great man," Billy said, slapping Aaron's shoulder. "Listen. I should get home in about forty-five minutes. Call me in about an hour at home. If no one answers, try my cell phone. If no one answers after that, call the police and get them over to my apartment."  
Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's necessary...she could be just fine."  
"I have this feeling...just do it, please?" And the young doc headed off to the garage, counting the seconds he and Diane were still apart.  
  
  
Diane's screams soon turned into moans of pain and sheer agony as the vile man thrust in and out of between her legs. Finally, it was over, and the man removed himself from her fragile body and pulled his boxers and pants back up. Just she was about to move off the bed, he grabbed her hair and flung her down again. He raised his arm and commenced to punch her.  
In ten minutes, after beating, slapping, even biting her, he choked her into unconsciousness and headed out of the apartment, crushing her cell phone with his foot as he passed it on the living room carpet. He left her for dead, just like that.  
  
  
Billy tapped his steering wheel impatiently, as he waited for a red light. He was only four blocks away from their apartment building. The anxiety that had overwhelmed him at the hospital was slowly building. Finally, the damn light turned green and he slammed on the gas pedal hard. Just then, a bright yellow car flew across the intersection.  
Billy threw his weight on the steering wheel, swerving around the car. His light, black jeep lost balance and flipped over, onto the passenger side. Billy heard a sickening crack through all the crunch of metal and debris. He had broken his leg. At least.  
  
  
Aaron paced in front of the nurse's station, listening to the rings that seemed to build up on his cell phone. He had dialed Billy and Diane's apartment two minutes ago and still no one answered. Just as he was about to hang up there was a click and he heard a small moan.  
"Hello?" He asked. "Diane? Billy?"  
He heard sobs on the other end and a small cry of pain, but the person didn't answer. It sounded like a woman. Like Diane. "Diane?"  
"I can't move..." she moaned.   
"Diane, hang on, I'm going to call an ambulance!" Aaron said, trying to stay calm. He barked orders for a nurse to get on another phone and call an ambulance to that apartment. "Just hold on Diane, helps going to get there."  
  
  
Diane held onto the phone as if it were her last lifeline. The sound of Aaron's faraway voice was comforting. She managed to painfully pull on her discarded panties that lay next to her on the bed. In all her fuzziness and discomfort she numbly wondered why she was talking to Aaron, and not Billy.  
  
  
"Got to get...police!...to my apartment..." Billy choked up to the paramedics that had raised his body onto a stretcher and into the ambulance. "I'm a doc...from Chicago Hope...my girlfriend...she needs help...my apartment..."  
One of the medics was watching Billy closely. "Man," he said to his partner, "He doesn't have any visible head injuries...I don't think he's delirious. Maybe we should send someone to his apartment just in case..."  
"Alright," the other medic agreed. "Can you give us your apartment, doc?" But Billy had slipped off into unconsciousness.   
  
  
Diane managed a sharp scream when she felt the hands on her. "Ma'am, ma'am, we're here to help you!" A female voice said. It sounded like she was talking from another room. Diane looked up but couldn't see anything but blurred, moving blobs that made her feel dizzy.  
"Help..." she moaned.   
"That's what we're here for. Let's get this woman to County!" The medic ordered.  
"Chicago Hope!" Diane managed to gasp. "Please...work there..."  
"Chicago Hope!" The medic said, "we're taking her there instead."   
  
  
Keith was shocked when Billy came rolling in on a stretcher with a broken leg, a sprained wrist and a broken collarbone. He was even more aghast when an ambulance came screaming up carrying a very, very beaten Diane Grad.   
"Physical abuse, including possible rape!" the female medic yelled to Keith as they wheeled her in. "Severe head trauma, a few possible cracked ribs. Her neck is very swollen. Looks like she was choked."  
"Okay, we're going to need Jack down here for Dr. Kronk!" Keith snapped to the interns and nurses. "And someone page Aaron immediately! She's going to need to go into post op ASAP!"  
  
  
It was four in the morning when Aaron walked out of the OR. It had been a successful surgery. He had had to secure and drain inter-cranial bleeding and a fracture in the upper part of her scull.   
Philip, Kate, Keith, Lisa, Dennis and Bobby were waiting for him. "How'd it go?" Lisa asked.  
"Fine, she's going to pull through. Physically, anyway. How's Billy doing?"   
"Equally okay. Jack set his fractures and tried to sedate him but he's still wide awake, demanding to see Diane," Philip replied. "You better go assure her that she's going to be okay."  
"What happened here, anyway?" Kate asked. "Was this the same accident...?"  
"It's a long story, but to be kept short, Diane was attacked and raped in their apartment. Billy got into a car accident on the way there." Aaron replied. "No one, and I mean no one, is to disturb Diane tonight. She has suffered major trauma and needs to be kept carefully watched in the ICU."  
  
  
Billy didn't get to see her until late Tuesday afternoon. Lisa pushed him in a wheel chair to Diane's private ICU room and left him there. Billy paused at the doorway. She was lying in bed, and IV inserted in her arm, a white bandage wrapped around her head. Bruises covered her arms, her face, but especially her neck. Even her eyelids were blue.   
He rolled up to her side and sat there. It was a moment before he took her hand in his. Her long fingernails were broken, probably from trying to resist her attacker. She had been kept under since the operation, but he knew the strong sedative would be wearing off soon.  
And so it was. Her eyelashes flickered as she tried to open her eyes. Her lips parted into a whisper. "Billy?"  
"I'm right here, honey, right here babyface." He replied, moving his face close to hers. "Everything's going to be alright..."  
"Billy...I..." tears fell down her cheeks. For the first time she noticed he was sitting in a wheelchair and heavily bandaged himself. "What happened to you?"  
"I got into a car accident on the way home to you," He replied. "I was so frightened...I had this feeling something was wrong. Aaron saved your life. He called the apartment and the ambulance and performed emergency surgery on you last night."  
"I know," Diane replied. "Oh god, Billy...that man...raped me..." her last two words were sobbed. "He killed that woman...stabbed her to death!...has he been caught?"  
Billy shook his head. "No, but they've got his name, license number, social security number, a whole lot of finger prints and a semen sample from..."   
Diane shook with painful sobs. "I want to kill him!" She cried. "I want to kill him! I feel like trash! I feel dirty!"   
  
  
Diane was out of the hospital after a week and a half of close observations by Aaron and his staff. She couldn't go back to their apartment, sleep in the same bed...she ended up staying at Kate's for a few days while Billy searched and found a new apartment, quite away from their old one.   
And the two of them made sure they met their neighbors before they finally moved in.   
  
***  
Three Months Later  
  
Diane and Billy went out for the first time since their horrific ordeal. Billy's ribs and collarbone had healed, but he still had to use crutches for his leg. Diane suffered headaches from the head trauma but all her bandages had been removed and almost all of the bruises had finally faded away. But the memories hadn't.  
They came home and ordered pizza and watched the History Channel, a boring special on WWII. Diane took a quick shower while Billy cleaned up, and they dressed into their pajamas. They crawled into their new bed and immediately turned away from each other.  
Ever since the rape, Diane hadn't allowed anyone to touch her. Not even, to his torment, Billy. He was hurt, but the therapist had told him that the last thing he should do is to have any sexual contact with her until she was ready. Although this was very difficult, he would do anything that would help her get better.  
He was just starting to doze off when he felt a hand press against his back. He turned and was face-to-face with Diane, who looked at him nervously.   
"Billy..." she said timidly. "Can I...can we...hold each other while we sleep, like we used to?"  
In wordless reply, Billy wrapped his arms around Diane and held her soft, delicate body against his, whispering, "I love you," over and over again in her ear.   
After a long moment, Diane replied against his lips, "I love you, too."  
  
  
The End  
  
I'm proud of myself...I wrote this in exactly two hours and sixteen minutes. Please, read and review! I need constructive criticism! I hope you liked it!   



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